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Posted by Sammi Jo
on 3/21/2009, 4:26 pm, in reply to "Feed"
69.19.14.33
I have always fed predominantly grass hay unless there was a reason to feed alfalfa. We had great success in Oregon with grain hay, generally barley and oat. The horses loved it and seemed to do well on it. The stems were more coarse, but had great fiber for the cold and of course the grain was still on the stalks. This was usually fed in combination with grass hay. We also had good luck feeding corn stalks when it was really cold. It is a by-product that is usually burned off or discarded but when fed to horses, provides and excellent source of fiber. I wouldn't feed corn stalks as a primary feed of course, but it is great for helping to keep them warm on cold nights.
You can see that Charlie still has a very large pot-belly, but it is dramatically smaller than it was 6 weeks ago. I agree with Loren on the fact that some extreme pot bellies, like Charlies, along with poor coat quality can point to underlying health issues and deficiencies. I do think it is natural to have a certain amount of a belly on the zebras. Look at most videos and photos of wild zebras in Africa. Most have a slight pot belly, especially in the rainy season. It is possible that they require that much fiber in their gut to maintain healthy digestion as opposed to a trim belly, as in a racehorse belly. There are definately extremes, like the racehorses who are fed a minimum of foreage and mostly concentrated feeds.
Right now, Charlie is on free choice of good grass hay, Vitality 14% twice a day supplimented with RedCell and Probios for vitamins and live bacteria for gut health. It has done wonders for him so far. I might consider feeding him alfalfa instead of grass hay, but it is very difficult to buy here, it isn't grown here and must be shipped in.
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